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I recently learned of a new generation of nuclear power technologies that, if successful, will change how people think about nuclear power.
Many of the negative views about nuclear power came from the first generation of nuclear plants built during the '50s and '60s. From what I understand, these plants are trickier to operate, have a greater risk of meltdown, and produce more nuclear waste than modern reactors. Most of them are still in operation despite their aging status because there is opposition to building new nuclear plants in the US. Other countries that started deploying nuclear plants more recently tend to use more modern designs. France actually runs almost entirely on nuclear power. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France )
However, the technologies I've seen recently look at using small nuclear power plants as ridiculously long-life batteries.
Hyperion claims to be refining a design for a nuclear reactor that would fit inside a truck and power a community of ~25000 homes for 7-10 years. It's totally self-contained and (they claim) it's extremely resistant to meltdown. We'll see if they actually deliver in 2013. Small reactors could power more isolated towns, large factories etc.
For the extremely micro-scale, there's this technology, which is essentially a tiny nuclear reactor on a chip. It produces electricity more or less directly from nuclear decay of tritium. It can't produce much power, but it can run a small remote device for 10-20 years.
Many of the negative views about nuclear power came from the first generation of nuclear plants built during the '50s and '60s. From what I understand, these plants are trickier to operate, have a greater risk of meltdown, and produce more nuclear waste than modern reactors. Most of them are still in operation despite their aging status because there is opposition to building new nuclear plants in the US. Other countries that started deploying nuclear plants more recently tend to use more modern designs. France actually runs almost entirely on nuclear power. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France )
However, the technologies I've seen recently look at using small nuclear power plants as ridiculously long-life batteries.
Hyperion claims to be refining a design for a nuclear reactor that would fit inside a truck and power a community of ~25000 homes for 7-10 years. It's totally self-contained and (they claim) it's extremely resistant to meltdown. We'll see if they actually deliver in 2013. Small reactors could power more isolated towns, large factories etc.
For the extremely micro-scale, there's this technology, which is essentially a tiny nuclear reactor on a chip. It produces electricity more or less directly from nuclear decay of tritium. It can't produce much power, but it can run a small remote device for 10-20 years.
